As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly find the source of a water leak.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a note on your phone and record the room, exact wet area, whether the water is clear or dirty, and whether it appears continuously or after rain, heating, flushing, showering, appliance use or a neighbour's activity.
   2. Without touching wet electrical equipment, photograph the leak, staining, ceiling or wall damage, nearby pipework and the wider room, then sketch the rooms and mark the wet area.
   3. Find the internal stopcock, usually where the mains water enters the property, and turn it off if the leak is from a pressurised water supply and you can do so safely; if water is near electrics, keep away and contact an emergency electrician or plumber as appropriate.
   4. Paste the recorded observations, photographs or descriptions, and floor-plan sketch into the prompt above and ask the chatbot to rank possible sources and separate safe checks from plumber-only checks.
   5. Carry out only the suggested visible checks that do not involve tools, dismantling, touching electrics or opening walls, and add the result of each check to your note.
   6. Compare the updated possibilities with the actual timing and location of the water, then send the notes and photographs to a qualified plumber, landlord or building manager if the source is hidden, the leak continues, or the checks do not identify it.

   Prompt

   Help me investigate the likely source of a water leak in a UK home. Do not claim certainty and do not tell me to dismantle anything, enter a confined space, touch electrics, or open a wall or ceiling. Start with immediate safety actions, including when to turn off the internal stopcock and electricity if water is near electrical equipment. Then list the most likely sources in order, based only on the information I provide. For each source, give one safe, visible check that does not require tools, and explain what result would support or weaken that possibility. Separate checks I can do from checks that need a qualified plumber. Tell me when to stop investigating and call an emergency plumber, landlord or building manager. Ask me for any missing information before making the list. My information: property type: [house or flat]; leak location: [room and exact area]; when it happens: [constant or linked to rain, heating, toilet, shower, taps, appliances or neighbours]; visible water: [amount, colour and smell]; damage: [staining, bubbling paint, damp or dripping]; nearby electrical equipment: [details]; stopcock location and status: [details]; recent work or unusual events: [details]; photos or a simple floor plan: [attach or describe].

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.